- View and print the Sunriver 2009 Northwest GIS Conference Program Guide [3MB PDF]
Recent comments
- Map Gallery Winners!!
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"Hic sunt dracones” — Filling in the GIS Map for the K-12 Classroom
Good recommendations, Brent.
The purpose of the geographic initiative has been to spur curriculum change in high schools. Since the early 1990's, Geography has spiraled into a precipitous decline as an easily dismissed curriculum, like a maiden aunt asked occasionally, if ever, to Sunday dinner. In Idaho, for example, social science majors are not required to take any geography courses prior to earning a teaching degree. Recent surveys are exposing a complacent, widespread geographic ignorance among young Americans, whose mental maps are often as flawed as the Tabula Peutingeriana (a medieval copy of Roman map), which described unknown territory with in his locis cenocephali nascuntur (here dog-headed beings are produced). Humorist Will Rogers rightly observed: “It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble; it's what we know that ain't so.”
We also recommend the integration of GIS at the middle school level, albeit with different software more appropriate to those grades. At one of my former schools, every student takes GIS classes.
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"Hic sunt dracones” — Filling in the GIS Map for the K-12 Classroom
Steven, this is an excellent program - great work on this! I applaud your efforts, and ESRI for giving away ten sitewide licenses, but I can't help but wonder if at least at an introductory level if more students might be reached by either: a.) open source technologies or b.) web mapping exercises using ESRI software. Reaching students at ten schools would be outstanding, but what if you could reach every school? Again, great initiative! Thanks.
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Poster Contest Categories
No, the map is 3'x5'
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City of Springfield: 10 Maps for the price of 1!
On the map, the shield for I-5 read "I-5". But it was an interstate shield symbol, so the shield should simply read "5", just like the signs on the real highway. The mapsymbol shield for I-105 was a state shield, and should have been an interstate shield.
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Talk Back.
As mentioned on the Lewiston poster for the Embalming Arsenic Leachate Surveys, we recommend that cities and towns maintaining wells on or near pioneer cemeteries with a substantial number of graves dating from before 1900 are advised to have the water tested for arsenic leachates.
For additional research, see:
John L. Konefes and Michael K. McGee, “Old Cemeteries, Arsenic & Health Safety,” Cultural Resources Management (National Park Service, IX:10, 1996), 15-18. -
Talk Back.
A reminder to all those interested in the ESRI-Lewiston GIS initiative.
I will be coordinating the implementation of ArcGIS 9.3.1 site licenses for ten (10) Northwest high schools who agree to teach a one (1) semester course. The project initiative calls for GIS professionals --- like you --- to team up with local high schools to teach the first semester, training a key faculty member and a pilot group of students.
Please contact me directly for a copy of the memorandum of agreement.
sbranting@lewiston.k12.id.us
or
stevenbranting@gmail.comMy experience has taught me that curriculum changes can be slow. The time to begin is this fall for a "fall semester - 2010" delivery date.
We want to go beyond helping with GIS to having a real impact integrating GIS.
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Conference Photos Online
Thanks, Sam, for capturing the flow of activities at the conference.
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Map Gallery Winners!!
I wish to thank all of the participants who selected the portrayal of our work. We expect to conclude additional field work next spring. The most comprehensive article regarding our work --- "That Abyss Where Sight Is Lost: Death on the Idaho Frontier --- will appear in 2010.
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Talk Back.
I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to meet with such an enthusiastic group of GIS professionals. The topics discussed were timely, especially those I heard relating to data management. I only regretted not being able to hear more of the fine presentation.
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Map Gallery Winners!!
User Conference Insider wins Poster contest? There should be a rule against that, people spend huge bucks to come to the conference to enter their work and then someone from the inside is allowed to participate in the contest? His map wasn't even within the size perimeters, of course people's eyes are drawn to Big and colorful.....this seems rigged.
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Poster Contest Categories
Congrats Brent on your win....just curious was your beautiful map within the contest's size perimeter?
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Poster Contest Categories
He's running the show at the last meeting right now, so it'll be after noon at the earliest.
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Poster Contest Categories
Hi Brent,
Can you post the poster contest results? We are sitting on the edge of our seats!
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Keynote Speaker - Aileen Buckley
During the comments after your talk there was some discussion about "bad maps" on the internet and what to do about them. The first answer is wow! There's lots of bad maps on the internet! Great! This means the barrier to entry now is really low. This is outstanding. There are people everywhere thinking spatially and using geography for good and evil. What an opportunity for the GIS community to provide leadership and education. There are legions of folks who could benefit from direction in cartography and access to better tools.
How do bad maps get created? Bad tools and poor understanding. Capitalize on this. Make the Map Center truly a learning place for better cartography, not simply a cookbook for ESRI recipes. If Cooking by the Book is the only way, then give the community a truly awesome tool that is a giant leap better than freely available tools. Give them ArcMap. For free.
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Earn More by Giving It Away
I gave a list of ten things that could compete with free in a networked economy of ubiquitous and free/nearly free goods and services:
- Immmediacy - mapping services
- Personalization - custom cartography (map for trial of bighorn sheep)
- Interpretation - web services that expose analysis tools (crop forecasting based on free satellite data)
- Authenticity - established expertise
- Open Accessibility - design for web mashups/reuse
- Embodiment - live performance or physical good (high quality poster)
- Patronage - true fans who support work often up front
- Findability - Aggregators (amazon, google, how about an aggregator for metadata?)
- Quality - Give away low resolution, charge for high quality 1 foot imagery service (or software)
- Affiliation - Buy Local, Buy from those in your "community" virtual or real.
- Comfort/Convenience - This one came from your comments and it reinforces why IE is still the dominant browser or ArcMap over some competing products.
What can you add to this list? Are there other good examples of each of these you'd like to share?
- Also note I made a small inconsequential error on my choice of youtube music piracy. Revised above.
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"Hic sunt dracones” — Filling in the GIS Map for the K-12 Classroom
If you are a GIS professional who has always wanted to work with schools, this session is a must for you. A successful program will be demonstrated, and you will learn how to get involved in your own community.
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Embalming Arsenic Leachate Surveys
Cities and towns maintaining wells on or near pioneer cemeteries are advised to have the water tested for arsenic leachates.
See John L. Konefes and Michael K. McGee, “Old Cemeteries, Arsenic & Health Safety,” Cultural Resources Management (National Park Service, IX:10, 1996), 15-18.
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5th Street Cemetery Necrogeographical Study
Dr. James Ronda, Barnard Professor in Western History at the University of Tulsa and noted Lewis & Clark historian, has commented: “We often tell students that the past is alive in the present. What better place to encounter the living past than in the places of the dead... In many ways I see this project as social history at its best.” (2004)
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“Less Than What Really Happened” — Archæological and Historical Field Studies with GIS Backbones
Does your community have an old cemetery dating from before 1900? And does that cemetery have a well on its property? If your answers are "yes," then you will want to make sure to attend the HIS in Education panel discussion, check out the poster session or speak with Steven Branting.
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Poster Contest Categories
hi brent-
wanted to verify the upper limits of the poster size. A standard E-size is 34x44 which would exceed the 42 inch limit. I have a 34x44 version and and 42x54 version of my poster...didn't want to have to replot if I didn't have to.
- "Hic sunt dracones” — Filling in the GIS Map for the K-12 Classroom
- “Less Than What Really Happened” — Archæological and Historical Field Studies with GIS Backbones
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"Hic sunt dracones” — Filling in the GIS Map for the K-12 Classroom
ESRI has a web site to encourage mentoring opportunities for classrooms:
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“Less Than What Really Happened” — Archæological and Historical Field Studies with GIS Backbones
Conference participants who are planning to attend this session may wish to peruse the 5th Street Cemetery Necrogeographical Study web site to gain some insight on the scope of work that can be done with students using GIS, GPS and associated technologies: http://www.lewiston.k12.id.us/staff/sbranting/5thcem/5thcem.htm
The poster strand was a peer review. If participants did not like a particular poster, they did not vote for it. Good work is worthy of a reward, regardless of the source. Perimeters are artificial barriers. And I saw excellent small posters.